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[MTK]

All of this points to a bigger problem with the industry itself

How the U.S. got into this baby formula mess

The infant formula industry is a multi-billion dollar business dominated by a handful of firms. In the U.S., just four companies control about 90% of the market, including Abbott Nutrition — the firm behind the shuttered Michigan plant.

These companies operate a relatively small number of formula factories in order to maximize efficiency and keep their production costs low.

"They're concentrating production into a few, very large plants but that creates a lot of risk," says Claire Kelloway of the Open Markets Institute, and anti-monopoly think tank. "A huge part of the crisis we're seeing now is from the closure of one plant."